3 & Out - Terry McLaurin REQUESTS A TRADE, Caleb Williams UPDATE, Steelers are in the HONEYMOON PHASE

John reacts to the breaking news that Washington Commanders WR Terry McLaurin has requested a trade. John, talks about what this request means, if he thinks Washington will trade him, and who might be a contender to trade for McLaurin.

Next, John talks about the Madden Ratings and how they compare to Super Bowl odds for certain teams and if there is any correlation  between Madden Ratings and teams winning the Super Bowl. Later, John gives you an update on the Bears and Caleb Williams, and finally he dives into the honeymoon phase that the Pittsburgh Steelers are currently in.

05:48 - Terry McLaurin requests a trade

21:08 - Madden Ratings

27:51 - Caleb Williams update

36:20 - Steelers honeymoon phase

41:53 - Tom Brady's comments

54:15 - Fugazi Friday

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. What is going on everybody? How are we doing?
Hopefully everyone's doing well, getting ready for the weekend. Hopefully

(00:21):
you had a better day, better week than the Commanders
because they're star wide. Receiver wants more money. They said no.
Now he wants a trade and they said no. So
weird situation brewing in Washington. I will give my reaction.
I actually recorded the podcast. Then I saw that story broke.
I'm like, I'll give my take on that, so that

(00:42):
we'll put that near the front of the podcast, and
then we'll talk some quarterbacks from somehow. The Madden rankings
have Mahomes fourth, the gambling odds on DraftKings have the
Chiefs below the Ravens and the Bills pretty crazy. So
we'll dive into is it now or never for the
Bills or the Ravens, and some thoughts on some of

(01:05):
the younger quarterbacks, as well as Tom Brady telling Scottie
Scheffler that his mind and his process and his overall
thoughts on winning a wrong, as well as Fugazy Friday.
Have we lost the plot on what actual controversies are
in life? Because I think we might have the Sydney
Sweeney thing, which I thought was gonna be a blip

(01:26):
just has not gone away, and I do want to
dive into do we even know what really real controversies
are anymore? Because I'm not sure we do. So I'll
probably save a mail bag for Sunday, which podcast for Monday,
for the weekend, and other than that. Yeah, you guys
know the drill. If you listen on Collins Feed, make
sure you subscribe to three and Out. If you listen

(01:47):
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(02:07):
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(02:29):
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down in the game Time app Today, last minute tickets,
lowest price is guaranteed. Okay, we just had some breaking
news from Jordan Schultz and Adam Schefter doubled down. I
got Brandon Ayuk liking the Instagram posts. Terry McLaurin has

(03:11):
officially requested a trade from the Washington Commanders, and we
have a bunch of different stuff going on around the
league right Trey Hendrickson's doing a hold in. Micah Parson
wants to get paid. We have contract situations now on
a yearly basis. And Adam Peters, who's with the forty
nine ers forever, who's the GM of Washington, has seen

(03:33):
him from Debo Deebo once requested to trade. Then he
showed up for OTAs for mandatory part training camp. I
can't even remember, but they worked out a contract and
obviously it didn't go that well, and now he's on
the Washington Commanders. We've seen holdouts with Nick Bosa. Like
Adam Peters has had a long experience when he was

(03:53):
with the forty nine ers of watching this situation happen.
But I also think this brings into light why all
these coaches and especially veteran players talk over and over
and over again about every year is of new year,
even with returning players, like guys get worse, guys get better,

(04:13):
Guys get injured, we get new players, we get coaches
come and go, you know, assistant coaches. Schemes can change.
You never know from year to year right how things
are going to play out. And Terry McLaurin has been
a part of this franchise when they were a joke
and obviously as a leader of this team and then
as they finally break out, he becomes the number one

(04:34):
target score at thirteen touchdowns and it's just an elite
player for them now. I also understand the complications, like
I'm always understandable when management pushes back on older players,
guys with their third contract in the NFL with enormous money.
It makes teams uncomfortable. Seattle, I'm out on DK metcalf Right.

(04:57):
I know DK requests a trade. I promise you this,
if Seattle would have put a lot of money in
from in front of them, he would have signed it. Right.
So we have seen guys this offseason, Miles Garrett, TJ Watt,
Max Crosby get enormous third contracts. I'd say all three
of those guys are somewhat outliars and played the second
most important position behind quarterback. I do think Adam Peters

(05:20):
when he traded for Deebo Samuel, which I like the
move I would have done it too, had to impact
Terry a little bit because this GM, this head coach,
they didn't draft you, right that the contract you're on
they had nothing to do with, even though you produced
for them, and I'm sure they like them. It just

(05:41):
shows you, like, hey, he'll bring in his guy immediately
when given the opportunity, and myself, like Deebo, are both
in contract years. We're fighting for more money. We want
to get paid more, and Terry coming off of good
year debo is not but goes, hey, if you like me,
now's the time. Why are we gonna play this thing out?
And if you're Washington, like, hey, we'd like to see

(06:02):
a couple of years of this before we give you
thirty five million dollars a year. And while Adam wasn't
with the Niners last year, he just saw the forty
nine ers give Ayuk different situation. It was like Ke's
first contract extension, a contract that they immediately regretted. And
anytime that you're on this rookie contract, everyone's like, you

(06:23):
gotta load up, you gotta load up, and that is true,
but you got to feel comfortable about what you're loading
up for now, depending on I mean what I want
to give him one hundred million dollars guaranteed, I wouldn't
feel comfortable doing something like that. And when you have
a guy asking for thirty five plus million dollars, he's
not going to sign a two year contract. So it's

(06:44):
pretty easy to do the math. The guaranteed number is
probably gonna be eighty five to ninety million dollars minimum
is what he's looking for. And clearly Washington right now
is uncomfortable doing that because if they weren't, I think
a contract would already be signed. But this is not
the NBA. When you demand a trade, you don't always go, Okay,
where do you want to go? As Chefter reported, the

(07:05):
Commanders have no desire and no intention of trading the player.
We plan on you being here, So these situations can
get weird. I saw Mike Silver. He interviewed Charvarius Ward,
who is now on the Colts, who two years ago
was an All Pro for the forty nine Ers. It's
had a great, great career, started on the Chiefs, signed

(07:28):
with the Niners, playing a bunch of big games, been
a high end player. Last year he had a tragedy
happened in in his life in the middle of the
season with a young daughter who passed away. Just awful situation.
But in this article he said, before that situation took
place in my mind, I couldn't even focus on football,
and I just I was out of it. I didn't

(07:49):
even want to play in the offseason, coming off an
All Pro season, like all the other guys on the team,
I wanted a new contract. I was going into my
final year. I wanted a contract extension. And the front
office looked at me and said, we're gonna pay all
these other guys. And then he said, guys started holding out.
I'm at practice and they still get paid. I'm like,

(08:10):
what the fuck's going on here? I was just an
All Pro, I play at premium position, and you're not
gonna pay me, and that this was his point. Like
I was pissed off, and I wasn't in a good
frame of mind. So anytime, I don't care who you are.
For most normal people that aren't talking anywhere near the numbers.
These guys are talking. In your job situation, when you

(08:33):
feel disrespected, especially if you work for a company or
work for someone or partners with someone and you've been
doing something for a long period of time. Terry's been
there for a while, you go, I haven't been just
a good soldier. I've been a productive member. I've been,
you know, one of the reasons, one of the bright
spots for this dog shit place. And now that things
are going well, I'm thriving and you're like, yeah, we'll

(08:56):
figure you out later, Like it can get weird. And
I also understand where Adam Peters is coming from, like, hey,
you're gonna be thirty years old or we're gonna give
you all this money, Like you're a good player, and
obviously you're productive and you have thirteen touchdowns last year,
But am I gonna pay you like you're jar Rice
or Justin Jefferson or Jamar Chase because we know you're
not that. So you get in these weird situations and

(09:17):
this is why you gotta be careful. And I liked
what Adam did this offseason. Instead of using all the
cap space they had and sign typically random average guys
in free agency that you have to pay premiums for it,
He's like, you know what, I'm gonna trade for veteran players,
not high picks, but mid round picks, for guys who
are under contract that make good money. Laramy Tunzel is available,

(09:41):
trade a third round pick for him, Deebo Samuel, who
I know is in the contract year. I'll trade like
a fifth or sixth round pick form and ideally we
get some good football out of those guys, right, and
then we can evaluate the end of the year, extend them,
move on from them. But like, I know what I'm
getting with the veteran guy. But sometimes when you do
that and you bring in their money and then there demands,

(10:01):
it kind of ruffled feathers inside the locker room because
Terry McLaurin looks at Deebo Samuel and goes, this year,
we're scheduled to essentially make the same amount. In what
world can I make the same amount as this guy?
I know he had success for that team a couple
of years ago, but not here. Not you know. I
saw this clip today on social media of Jerry Jones.

(10:23):
It must have been from Dion's like NFL network, a
Football Life probably, and Stephen Jones and Jerry Jones were
telling the story of you know, the cap had just
started in the mid nineties and Stephen Jones was like
their cap guy and Jerry didn't even ask him. It
signs Deon Sanders and at the time gives him like

(10:44):
thirteen million dollars signing bonus to sign with the Cowboys
after he had just won the Super Bowl with the Niners,
and basically the way they did it gave him thirteen
million dollars up front and then they paid him like
the veteran minimum for the next couple of years, but
they gave him a ton of cash relative to the
NFL the time. And Stephen Jones was in this clip
going I looked at Jerry, I said, do you understand

(11:05):
how mad it's going to make all these accomplished guys
in our locker room. And Jerry said, don't worry. I'll
will handle it like it's on me to let Emma Smith,
Troy Mean and Michael Irvin know why we did this.
And even if they were mad, Deon Sanders was in
the peak of his powers. Like when you trade or
signed Deon Sanders, everyone in the mid nineties goes, this

(11:27):
is one of the best players in football. This guy's
a chance to go down. It's one of the greatest
players ever. So even if you do bring in someone
to your locker room that you go, you know, this
guy's now the highest paid guy in our locker room.
We're a locker room full of guys that have had success,
but hey, this is one of the better players in
the league. Right if you go. If if Miles Garrett,
instead of signing with the Browns had been like, listen,

(11:49):
you guys are gonna trade me, and Jimmy has will
be like, okay, we'll trade. You trade him to the Lions, right,
and they give him a huge contract that he just got.
Obviously he would immediately become their highes paid per But
I think people in the locker room would go, yeah,
it's one of the best players in the league. You
trade for Miles Garrett, you trade for Max Crosby. It's
easy for people in the locker room to understand when

(12:09):
you trade for Laramie Tunzel, even if he's a really
good player. You go, this guy just the left tackle
for one of the worst offensive lines in the league,
and he's gonna want a ton of money. I know
you just traded for him to eventually sign him. You
trade for Debo who, Like, isn't the thing with this
guy had been he's like fat, notunt of shape, and
now we both make the same amount of money this
year on this team. Like, it's easy to get locker

(12:30):
room dynamics that we're dealing with human beings here did
all their information like sometimes information in what we do, right,
unless you know the right people, you don't know what
your colleague makes you don't know what other people make,
you know for your company. So if you found out
and someone that you thought you were five times more

(12:52):
productive than was making two times more money than you,
guess what would happen? You would be pissed off. What
would happen if they brought someone into the company that
you think you are one hundred percent better than, who
has no loyalty that to your company because he's never
been a part of it, and you find out he's
making the same money as you, you might be mad

(13:12):
as well. Like these are human reactions and human you know,
emotions that naturally come out. It's why it's on your boss,
It's why it's on people you know above you in
the company to handle those situations as best they can.
No different than Washington. It's on Adam, it's on Dan
Quinn to try to handle these situations. But sometimes you know,
these guys are all rich, but money is about respect,

(13:34):
and when you feel disrespected, things can get weird. And
the moment they get weird, things can kind of unravel.
It's why year to year there is no It's like,
what the what the Patriots did for twenty years is incredible.
They's kept on winning what the what the Chiefs have
done these last five or six years is awesome. If
the Eagles go back to back, that is such an

(13:55):
incredible accomplishment. Hell, if you just tell me, like, hey,
they're back in the NFC Championship game, Like that's really
really impressive. It's hard to do it year to year.
It's really really hard to sustain winning because it's Charvarius
Ward said in this article to Mike Silver. When you're
good and you start winning, everyone wants more money. Right.
It's like pat Riley talked about it. It's disease and

(14:15):
me disease and more. And then I remember John lanch Or,
Warren sapp Or, there was a documentary done on the
on those Buccaneers teams, and it's like that year after
they won the Super Bowl, a couple of contract holdouts,
a couple of dudes like names on restaurants. It's like, okay,
we're getting a little you know, can we keep the

(14:38):
focus the main thing, the main thing? And it's hard
because everyone's a business. Well yeah, it is a business
where you're dealing with human beings. They're young, making a
ton of money and easily have huge egos and easily disrespected.
It's a tough business, you know, to handle this. I've
always given a lot of respect. It's like, well, anyone
you know Joe Tory won with some of those Yankee teams.
Like it's hard to coach stars. You try to coach

(15:00):
Kobe Shack and Michael Jordan, god Speeds bet most of
you couldn't ask everyone that's tried to coach Lebron. He
won't fucking listen to anybody. So it's like, it's harder
to coach big egos, big stars than it is nobody's.
And typically the more you win in pro sports, especially football,
the bigger you know, your stardom becomes, the bigger your

(15:22):
name becomes, and the more money you want. So I
think it's safe to say that Washington has a legitimate
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Speaker 1 (17:08):
Well, the Madden ratings came out, and let me just
say I love John Madden. John Madden was a cow
Pauly alum where I went to school. John Madden lived
in northern California. John Madden was someone who was integral
and played a massive role in my life as growing
up a football fan. Him calling the Niners, Packers and

(17:30):
Cowboy games in the mid to late nineties is something
that I consumed, which obviously helped lead me to where
we're sitting today. My love of football began watching football
games with John Madden on the mic, and like most kids,
I love playing the Madden video game, though I don't
play video games anymore. So reacting to the Madden list

(17:54):
of rankings, I'd be lying if I said I cared
that much. But I don't think you could list guys.
I got no problem giving people ninety nine s right,
great players high rankings, and if you're gonna do it
at quarterback, have no problem. If you go, you know,
Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson are gonna get ninety Nines. But
if you do that, you have to give Patrick Mahomes

(18:16):
the same number you just middle. Coffy wasn't as good
every single game that has ever mattered. When he played
those two guys, his team wins, and he plays a
major role in that fact, Like that is an undeniable
spot where we're at. Yet those guys, somehow, Patrick Mahomes
is the fourth ranked guy on Madden. Which, listen, do

(18:38):
I think the Chiefs like live in this level of
anger and animosity at the disrespect others give them. I don't,
but I do think we've never seen it, definitely in
my life. A team that has accomplished more get their
star players, slash their organization, get less credit. Like when

(18:59):
I was a kid, once Michael established himself as the
big dog, the Bulls were favored every single year. If
the Bulls didn't win and Michael was playing. It was
stunning what Tom Brady and the Patriots became after those
first couple of years. You just thought they were always
gonna It was shocking when they lost in the Super
Bowl or lost in the AFC Championship. I mean stunning.

(19:21):
Yet somehow, and listen, I bought into it two years ago,
I bet on the Chiefs, or bet against the Chiefs
three straight weeks. They were an underdog against the Bills,
they were an underdog against the Ravens, and they were
underdog against the forty nine Ers. They won all the games.
And last year playing the Bills AFC Championship, what happens
they went again. And I looked at DraftKings earlier today

(19:43):
because I think I'm about dabbling a little actually, kind
of like I think the best odds on the board
would be splitting a bet somewhere in like Denver or
the Chargers to win the AFC and Denver in the
Chargers potentially to win the division. Though that's just that's
just best odds. One thing that is not the best

(20:03):
odds is somehow the Chiefs, that have won the conference
five of the last six years, five of the last
six years, are not even the favorite to win the
conference again. A team that they've beat like four times
in the playoffs, the Bills, another team in which I
was told this is one of the best teams we've
ever seen two years ago. Best defense, Chiefs beat them
on the road. The Ravens and the Bills. Right now,

(20:27):
obviously they're both heavy favorites to win their division. The Bills,
I mean feel like the lock of all locks to
win their division, and it'd be a little stunning if
the Ravens didn't win their division. But they're not just
the favorites to win the conference, they're also the favorites
to win the super Bowl. They have better odds at
seven to one to win the Super Bowl than the

(20:49):
defending Super Bowl champs, who essentially bring back everybody and
are completely loaded and don't have to play each other
because they're in the different conference. And the Chiefs, who
have slayed both these two teams over the course of
the last half decade, have worse odds than both of them.
It honestly is kind of crazy, the amount of disrespect

(21:10):
from a gambling standpoint, from a video game standpoint that
it's like, oh, yeah, these guys are just better than
the Chiefs. They I remember, you know, on the peak
of Steph Curry's you know powers, you know, sometimes like
James Harden would win the MVP. It's like, does anyone
believe that James Harden's better Steph Curry? It's like, how
Chris Paul is the best? Point? God, well, what does
that make Steph. You know you could if you had

(21:33):
a year where you put their rankings and one guy
was above the other, Like it's like James Harden's a
ninety eight in this video game, in Steph's a ninety five.
It's like, is there a human alive, especially working in
the league, that would take that guy over this guy.
It's like we all acknowledge, you know, mahomes one of
the greatest players we've ever seen, accomplish the most, wins

(21:53):
the most, and just gets it done when it matters
the most all the time. Yet he it's like, yeah,
these other two guys, and listen, I think that Lamar
Jackson and Josh Allen are two of the better players
I've ever seen. They're guys that should walk straight into
the Hall of Fame. But if they don't get it, Like,
if not now, then win now. I've been saying this

(22:15):
for a while. There's been one team over the course
the last six seven years that could truly be disappointed
if they didn't win the Super Bowl. That was the Chiefs,
And up until last year, I think there were a
couple of teams, the Eagles the Niners that could be
disappointed if they lost in the super Bowl, you know,
or if they didn't make the super Bowl. But it's like,

(22:36):
you know, the Niners, you guys haven't won super Bowl
since the mid nineties. The Eagles, you won one super
Bowl in the history of your franchise in twenty seventeen.
Getting the Super Bowl is a really, really big deal. Now,
if you get disappointed you lose in the first round,
I totally understand it. But is it truly super Bowl
or bust? Now you could argue this year with the
Eagles bringing most people back, could be super Bowl or bust.

(22:56):
I would say anything less than a super Bowl appearance
for the Bills or the Ravens would have to be viewed,
assuming you know, all this stuff is assuming quarterback health.
A major major disappointment. They're the betting favorites. Fuck Madden's
given their quarterbacks ninety nine rankings, and it's like they
never won that game. The Bills have been in that
position several times. The Ravens were in that position last

(23:19):
year or two years ago. Then they fail every single time.
So it's like, listen, everyone is acknowledging these two teams,
These two guys in the peak of their powers, excellent
defensive coaches, excellent cultures in the franchises, but it feels
a little now or never, or you kind of start
to become like one of those teams. It's like, oh yeah,

(23:41):
just sexy regular season team, really good, but you can't
totally depend on when it matters the most. Speaking of
young quarterbacks, think of what an advantage you know Caleb
is in the headlines constantly, right Ben Johnson. The training camp,
I'd say, JJ McCarthy's a little bit like this, Oh,
we know the coach, we know the defense, we know

(24:03):
the roster is really good. Like there are a lot
of question marks with the Bears, but Jayden Daniels and
bow Knicks are two guys that get to come into
this training camp where there is no turnover in terms
of their play caller, their head coach, their general manager,
their overall organization. It is the same exact cultural philosophy,

(24:24):
schematic ideas in plays that they were running last year.
So the advantage they have of just working on their leadership,
working on their growth, working on just getting better is
much easier when you already know the plays, When you
already know the plays you like, when you don't like
the things you need to work on, Caleb Williams is

(24:46):
coming into this drinking out of a fire hose, as
any new player is, or any young player is with
a new coach and new scheme. It's intense. So whenever
I read headlines like oh, just offense had a shitty day,
it's like, yeah, it's going to happen. This isn't easy,
Like this is difficult. But he's had a pretty big
disadvantage relative to these other guys, and that's we're comparing,

(25:08):
Like part of Caleb is being compared to the class. Right.
Everyone thought Sean Payton was an idiot for taking bo Nicks.
I think the Bronks are gonna be pretty good. I
I they're gonna have one of the best defenses, if
not the best defense in the league. They had green
Law and Hufunga, who you know. Green Law is one
of the more physical players in the NFL and who
had a couple years ago was an All Pro. So

(25:28):
it's like their defense was already elite. So he had
those two guys, assuming that just one of them's healthy,
let alone two of them big additions, and then offensively
they're just gonna be better. Their quarterback was pretty damn
good last year. For a rookie this year, he's gonna
be much more comfortable in this offense. The head coach
is an offensive coordinator, and they add this young running back,

(25:51):
which clearly the coach is really high on. I would
say the coach has some experience of dealing with pretty
good running backs, So like it's gonna be pretty difficult,
Like Caleb's gonna have to play pretty well, Ben Jonson's,
Ben Johnsons gonna have to coach pretty well, and this
thing's gonna have to come together pretty quickly. This is
the hard part about this modern day twenty twenty five NFL.
It's not like, hey, give them a couple of years,

(26:13):
they'll figure it out. Because if these guys have really
good years and their teams are really good again, right,
we know how good Washington was. If the Broncos take
a step and like are much more of a real threat.
Even if the Bears like make progress and look like
they're heading in the right direction and they win like
eight games, it'll be viewed like these other guys are
in a different universe than him. So I think, you know,

(26:36):
sometimes in football for young players having cohesion and listen,
I don't blame the bears for firing everybody I would
have done to hiring Ben Johnson's a no brainer, but
that transition. Ben's got to learn on the job. Ben's
never been the head coach. Slash also called the place
and had to deal with like as guys get in trouble,
as guys get as guys get injured, as guys feelings

(26:59):
get hurt because they get benched, Like that's all the
stuff you have to deal with. I was watching the
Lions do as it's called like the den or something.
It's on on their YouTube page. It's really really well done.
And I was just watching how they put their staff
together and some of the guys they hired. I mean,

(27:20):
they hired North Dakota's longtime offensive coordinator, They brought in
David Shaw, they bring in Johnny Morton, who's been with
Cruden and Sean Payton forever and really highly thought of,
and just some of the guys that they've brought into
their coaching staff. It's all about Dan Campbell, like he's
the guy setting the tone, interviewing these guys running the culture,

(27:40):
and he just listen, are the Lions possibly going to
take a little step back? Potentially? Yeah, maybe, They're not
a fifteen win team, and maybe they're eleven win team, right,
But I'm pretty confident with him leading the charge. I
call him the third Harbob brother. That they're gonna win,
that they're going to have a good season. And you
feel that way about John Harbaugh, Jim Horribad. It's like,

(28:02):
why are people buying into the Raiders because, like Pete
Carroll knows what he's doing. What Pete say, like last week,
they're like, what have your what are your expectations this year?
He's like to win. It's like, I've been winning ten
plus games for twenty years. I think I showed up
here to lose. I don't know if you realize I've
been making a lot of them. I don't need the money.
I'm not here to get some extra paychecks. I'm here
to win. And obviously all coaches want to win, but

(28:25):
I think some guys have to figure out how to
win before and I think that's a huge, you know question, Mark,
I think with the Bears, and I would say for
the other young quarterbacks. I'd say the same thing with
Michael Pennix, who I'm a big fan of. But that's
an organization that has just not been winning. We have
no clue if they're head coach, if their coordinators know
how to win, right, So learning and figuring that out

(28:48):
is a really, really big deal, no matter how much
talent you have, no matter how many good players you draft. Right,
this is two things really matter in football. Besides like
the physical characteristic and the scheme and all that stuff,
chemistry matters. Chemistry really matters, and cohesion and playing together
for a while matters. This is not one of those

(29:09):
it's white college football, you know. It has become more
interesting in the sense of how many transfer guys they have.
Like one big advantage for Ohio State last year is
most of theirs guys returned right now. They added Caleb Downs,
they added Will Howard, they added a couple pieces. Jeremiah
Smith was a true freshman, but the core of their

(29:30):
team were returning players. Two years ago, when Harbaugh Michigan
won the national championship, what did they hang their hat
on the same core group of guys, Like the twenty
one of the twenty two starters had played together for
years years. It's kind of like that in football. What's
a huge advantage of the Chiefs have had all their
guys played together, and sometimes building that level of cohesion,

(29:52):
especially with a new coach on the job, can be
really really challenging, Like, well, what about Drake May and
Josh McDaniel's. Yeah, I mean it's gonna be a work
in progress. Josh's offense won's when he's left the umbrella
of Brady and Bill has not been good, you know,
And he's got Drake May. They don't have that many pieces.

(30:14):
But where I feel good, it's like their head coach
knows what he's doing. And this is a coach and
quarterback league. So yeah, I don't feel that great just
because he's an unknown on Drake May. But I'm a
big believer in the head coach. And when you're a
big believer in the head coach. We learned this last
year with the Chargers. Everyone's like, all the team's not
good enough. They got rid of Mike Williams, they got
rid of Keenan Allen. Who's he gonna throw to? I

(30:36):
don't know. They got fucking Jim Harbaugh. And when you
have that guy, you'll figure it out. Like I don't
know if the Raiders team is good enough. Slash their
division is so good and honestly, their record, you know,
they only could win a couple more games, Like if
they go seven to ten this year wouldn't shock me,
but it would be like, oh, they'd be a respectable team.

(30:57):
You better buckle your chin strap every time you play
because whoever they're rolling out like, they're gonna know what
they're doing. They're gonna know what's expected. Is their talent
gonna be good enough? I don't know, but you better
get ready. And that's I think when you look at
this league, like you know, Ben Johnson, it's just I
know he's a good play caller, but he never had

(31:18):
to deal with this stuff because Dan Campbell handled it
all like Raheem Morris like obviously a good guy. Sean
McVay loves him, the media loves him. Does he know
what he's doing? Does he have any clue what he's
doing as a head coach, because we've seen great Vic
Fangil is an elite defensive coordinator, a head coach is
like completely over his head. So I'm just I'm fascinated

(31:40):
with that aspect of kind of that class. And as
we know, we always assume like all these guys are
gonna hit. Historically, if if there are four quarterbacks drafted
in the first round, we know two of them are
gonna suck, right, and if one of them becomes like
an all pro, that's a hit, and the other guys
multi year, multi contract guy, that's a win. Well, there

(32:03):
were six guys drafting the top fifteen, and you know,
if we assume Jayden Daniels and bow Knicks are going nowhere,
some of these other guys are going to be flops.
Some of these other guys are not gonna work. So
I I don't know better buckle up anyone. When if
you're married, depending on how long you know, like when

(32:26):
you first start dating your wife, that honeymoon face. Obviously
for some of you single guys there's been in different relationships.
There's nothing like that. That early time when you're dating someone,
Like if you go on to date them for a year,
two years or whatever, that first couple months is pretty special.
Right you're having sex with someone new, you just everything's happy.
That the expectations of just being around someone new, you

(32:49):
don't the judgment on different things are just you're just
so much more open minded to everything. And obviously the
sex helps, but it's just it's just a great time,
and that honeymoon phase is for most people the easiest
time in their relationship. And then eventually, if you date
someone long enough, you know you're gonna hit some rocky times.

(33:12):
You're gonna have a big disagreement, you're gonna have a
bad fight, maybe you have a reaction. The more and
more you start hanging out with people's family and people
start wanting you to do things that you don't want
to do, and you kind of you go through a
period where it's like, Okay, is this really gonna happen?
Are we really in this for the long haul? Or
are we gonna go our separate ways right now? So

(33:32):
that honeymoon phase, whenever it does come to an end,
it comes to a screeching holt. It doesn't mean that
some of those good things don't continue ideally the rest
of your life if you stay with the person. But
life becomes real, right, it doesn't just become fantasy. And
I think sometimes in training camp. I'm watching McAfee yesterday
at Steelers camp, and you talk about the honeymoon phase.

(33:54):
You got Mike Tomlin smiling ear to ear talking about Rogers.
You look at Rogers, you know, for this quote unquote
guy that's polarizing. He looks at the place is chanting
for him. He's smiling, he's having a blast. You got TJ. Watt,
new contract, ear to ear smile, you got new dbs,
you got the GM's, Like, God, am I underestimating the Steelers?

(34:18):
And then I started thinking, you gotta be careful. Even
Rogers mentioned this. Everyone's zero and zero right now. No
one's lost a game. Everyone for the most part, as
long as you don't have any major injuries, is pretty
happy during this period of time, right everyone's in a
pretty good mood. I do feel when I watched the
Steelers felt like they were in extra good good mood.

(34:39):
But they're gonna be defined. Like obviously they got some
big name guys, and they got talent on the team,
and they got a roster who unlike some of those
things we just talked about with the Bears, like they've won,
they know how to win. Now, do they know how
to win big enough games? Obviously they haven't been doing
that lately, but they've won a lot of games for
a reason. They're a well run operation. They're gonna be

(35:00):
tested after something weird happens, whether it's a major injury
in the season, whether it's a two game losing streak,
and their relationship, especially Mike and Aaron and Arthur Smith
and the cohesion of the group Jalen Ramsey, how that
comes together. And honestly, like the relationship, you can guess,
you can assume it's gonna go well, but you never

(35:23):
know till you're in it. And here's the other thing.
Sometimes in a relationship, when you hit hard times, when
you hit a bad fight, sometimes you realize like, actually
don't really like this person that much. I don't really
want to figure out how to work through this. And
there are other times where you're like, I will do
anything possible to make sure this works out. I'll look

(35:45):
in the mirror, I'll be introspective, I'll fix these problems.
We saw the Jets because they had the same honeymoon
typeface with Aaron Rodgers and then they hit hard times
and everyone just kind of tapped out and it was
a disaster. Because no different than relationship. Teams are the
same way. Some people look at each other and they're like,

(36:06):
I will fight for you, right, I will fight for
the man next to me, I will fight for my coaches.
I will run through a wall for these guys, even
though we just went one in three in the month
of October and now we started four and zero. Now
we are, you know, five and three and lost three
of our last four games. We are trending in, but
we're gonna We're gonna dig our way out of this.

(36:28):
And we see teams all the time go one way
or the other, and one thing that they are gonna
battle is in terms of chemistry as a group. These
guys haven't been together for that long. And one thing
I did see there and I do agree with, there
is a power in going away for training camp. There
is just a natural bonding of having to spend a

(36:49):
lot of time together, which you don't necessarily do. And
I understand why these teams, like when I was with
the Eagles, Andy Reid loved going away. He went to Lei,
he went to Kansas City. They go away as well. Well.
The Steelers have been going to Latrobe. I think since
the sixties. Some of these teams still go away. The
forty nine Ers do not, the Raiders do not. The
Eagles no longer do so. Obviously, it's much easier from

(37:12):
an infrastructure standpoint, with your meeting rooms and everything to do.
But the chemistry, unless you already have it built in,
could be difficult to build because it's seven o'clock when
maybe a meeting ends, like hey, we've got tomorrow off,
everyone can just go home. You might just want to
go home and go to your bet. Well, if you're
at training camp together, it's like, well, let's do something.
We're all here together, what else are we gonna do that?

(37:33):
That is a big advantage for the Steelers, and I
do wonder, even the last couple of years, when their
talent hasn't been quite as high as some of these
other teams, if that does benefit them, just their short
microwaved chemistry session during the three weeks at Latrobe. It
cannot be a negative. I have a theory and most

(37:57):
of you probably saw the Scottie Scheffler video seven weeks
ago that went viral about how golf essentially does not
define his life and sometimes he asked himself like, what's
the point of this all? And I think I talked
about it last week, and you know, basically, if it
ever impacted his family life, he would just quit. And
Tom Brady, I think does a newsletter I might need

(38:19):
to subscribe to that was almost offended and essentially said, like,
why do your family and your profession need to be
mutually exclusive? Like aren't they intertwined in a cliffed out
version of what he said is essentially like part of
my work ethic and my desire and drive to be

(38:40):
great at football and try to win, was showing my
children as an example of what it's like to work hard.
And I do agree as someone who's not a parent yet.
But obviously you saw my dad growing up, and you
know my other close friend's parents who some of these
guys were really really successful. You know, as a parent,
I think your number one job, beside like early on

(39:03):
keeping them alive, breathing and eating, is as they age,
you know, follow your lead, be a good example for
them on how to treat people, on what it's like
to work hard, on what it's like to you know,
deal with your mother or their mother in a proper
fashion and a manner. But I do somewhat agree with

(39:27):
Brady as they shouldn't be mutually exclusive. But I have
a theory and I looked this up in Tom Brady's
first ten years in the NFL, and obviously Tom came
in in two thousand So through the two thousands he
had made seventy five million dollars by he'd won an MVP,
he'd been to I think four Super Bowls, he'd won

(39:49):
three of them. He had been he was just an
absolute rock start. And don't get me wrong, seventy five
million in twenty ten, that's a ton of money. Like
to Tom Brady was rich then, but the level of
money that these guys earn now, basketball, football, baseball, golf
is in a different stratosphere. For example, Scottish Scheffler, it's

(40:09):
basically the end of July, so the last nineteen months,
so the seven this year, the two last year, I
would guess, give or take, and honestly, in the next
month it could be one hundred and twenty million dollars.
He plays golf for a living and made one hundred
and twenty million dollars on the course. To put that

(40:30):
into context, Tiger Woods, over the course of his en
course career, made one hundred and twenty million dollars. So
my point is, and I've always said this, I admire
people like Tom, like Tiger, like all these individuals that
basically till their body gives out on him. Peyton was
the same way. The money. They are completely unphased by it,

(40:51):
and I do believe that Scottie is unphased by But
when you make that much money that fast, because Scotty
Scheffer really became a good PGA tour player like three
years ago, and then two years later, boom, he's made
a hundred million dollars on the course, not even factory.
I'm sorry, that would just change your life in the
way you view things a little bit. I don't. I

(41:12):
don't care who you are, and I see it with
these I was listening to someone the other day discussing
the NBA. You know, before, especially when I was a kid,
these guys were making good money. Like if you were
a good NBA player, you made five, six, seven million dollars,
but you could basically double that by working with corporations,
being on commercials, Like most NBA stars when I was

(41:34):
a kid were prominent members of commercials, and obviously, from
a shoe standpoint, weren't just shoe salesmen. They literally went
to places and push shoes right because it was a
way for them to make a ton of money. Well,
now you get guys like let's use Devin Booker for example,
who I think is a good player. I don't know,

(41:55):
was just on a team that was god awful? Is
going to be making over seventy million dollars a year
playing basketball? What in what line of work outside of basketball?
Could someone pay him enough money to go? Yeah, I'm
not interested. I do shoe company too. Like he doesn't
need to do anything. So there is a level of

(42:20):
once you get to a certain position and a certain
level of wealth, which now these guys make more money
than like guys in the top ten twenty companies in America.
I mean, how many W two employees make fifty sixty
seventy eighty million dollars a year? Got news for you?
The list is small people that do not own the entity,

(42:42):
like what Roger Goodell? The money he makes is kind
of unique, right Obviously he's I guess, the leader kind of.
I mean the owners kind of are. But he works
for the owners that have this several I don't know
how we'd value the NFL but worth billions upon billions
upon billions of dollars on a yearly basis. But he
doesn't own anything, like he owns a team, doesn't own

(43:04):
the league, doesn't own the media, right, he owns nothing.
He's just an employee, and I think sometimes when you
get to that, it's like, shit, I don't need any
what's all this for. I don't. I have no worries
in the world. So I do understand where Scott's coming from.
I understand where Tom's coming from. And this is what
whenever I get asked about players when you're scouting a player,

(43:26):
and GMS reiterate this all the time. Every person's their
own just like me and my brother were very different.
I'm sure anyone listening to this that has siblings, they're
very different. Anyone that has multiple kids, like their personalities
are much different. If you get too multiple dogs in
your house, usually one dog and the other dog, they

(43:46):
act way different. So part of life is everyone thinks
a little bit differently, and that helps, I would say,
make up an interesting or the ability for these guys
to be interest because they're not all the same. Okay,

(44:15):
let's end on this, foo Kayzy Friday. I try more
now than ever to just spend less time on the
Internet scrolling and getting angry, because I would say, a
decade ago, five years ago, you just spend so much

(44:35):
time getting worked up about like what is the point,
Why am I mad over some person's take on something
that I honestly I would never meet this person. If
I did meet this person, I would never spend a
second with this person. I hate this person's opinion that
ten before social media, you wouldn't even know that person existed.

(44:58):
And nowadays people just argue back and forth in the
comments and nothing is accomplished. Right, you go to YouTube,
you go to like the athletic an any article, people
just be arguing in the comments, like what is the
point of any of this? I do think the word
controversy used to like hold some weight, right, Like it's

(45:20):
controversial should we go to war? Should we raise taxes? Right?
Or something. Let's use a sports analogy like Barry Bonds
and those guys using steroids, Tom Brady should he get
suspended for deflating the balls? Belichick using cameras to steal

(45:43):
signals on the field against the Jets in two thousand
and seven. Now, there would be people, depending on what
side you were on, who you were associated with, you
would have an opinion on the controversy. But I think
we'd all agree, like there were things that were clearly controversies.
Now with social media, that an ad. You know what's

(46:04):
funny is I think sometimes these controversies in a weird
way are such like in a niche lane, yet they
become so mainstream because people that still hold these jobs,
like I'm the producer of good Morning America or I'm
the producer of some show or whatever. Where do I
get my information? Now? It's not the La Times. I'm

(46:26):
not surfing the San Francisco Chronicle. I'm on Instagram, Twitter.
That's where I'm getting my information. And in fairness, like
I get a lot of podcast topics from social media.
I'm not against gathering information on social media, but I
think sometimes Sidney Sweeney, who ironically my wife, who's a
thirty three year old woman who you know, is on

(46:49):
social media, sees things I brought it up, like, hey,
that American Eagle ad Sydney sweem me. She's said, what
are you talking about? She had no clue what I
was talking about. And I think three or four days ago,
if you just went to this and brought this up,
like have you seen the controversy of the American Eagle
Sydney sweeneyad, people would have looked at you like you
had three heads one They wouldn't even have known what

(47:10):
the ad was. And two if you tried to explain
it to them, they probably just would have walked away,
like what the bleep are you talking about, you whack job.
I think nowadays that you could do anything and someone
and in this situation, some like fat smelly, ugly white
chick could just post how offended they were by a

(47:33):
commercial and in theory, no one should see that post,
and no one with common sense or a brain, if
they did see the post, would spend more than two
seconds on the post, let alone thinking there is like
validity behind the post. But nowadays, if something happens and
you post the extreme opposite view and you throw in,

(47:56):
you know, some buzzwords like racism, assists Sydney Sweeney, all
of a sudden people repost you on the opposite side,
and then you create a controversy out of thin air.
Something that did not exist now exists, and then all
these producers of these shows that need to fill different

(48:18):
airtime start going, we got something here, and then a
controversy is created literally from nothing. And I am not
anti technology, social media, the iPhone, just in general, because
I think most of this stuff kind of starts and
ends there, right, doesn't end there, but really starts in

(48:41):
catapults from there. But I have made my career over
the last decade because of that thing. I owe a lot.
I owe the house I'm sitting in here right now
because of technology and because of that iPhone. I do
think it has led to situations like this, which you
try not to pay that much attention to, like this

(49:01):
is stupid, It's gonna go away, And then you feel
like three, four or five days later, not only is
this not going away, every single human is talking about this,
and it's like, how did we get here. It's like
Stephen Colbert he was fired right, and it became a
huge controversy. It's like, I can't believe did the government
force CBS to fire him? And then it comes out

(49:21):
he had been losing forty to fifty million dollars a year.
He had a staff of two hundred people. And this
is an industry that's like, well, hey, it's just a
weird year, right, They'll be fine, Like this year they'll
probably you know, turn a profit. It's like, no, they
have lost over half their advertisers in the last eight years.

(49:43):
Their average viewer age is close to seventy. They are fucked.
If this was a stock, you would short to live
and shit out of that show if you could, and
if you could have, you would have just made a
ton of money. Yet it becomes controversial because people are like,
oh my god, this happen. No, this is capitalism and
business and this show is a dog. I mean, this

(50:06):
show in any other line of work, in a podcast,
if I was in a similar situation, even if the
numbers were different. Right, we're not talking fifty million. Let's
say I'm losing a couple million dollars if you fired me,
that there is zero controversy there is. You are bad
for my business. That is what that is. And these
things now, because people can go on these rants, even

(50:27):
if you just have one hundred followers, Then someone with
a big following picks it up, who's anti what you're saying,
amplifies it, and then it just becomes in the ring
of people arguing back and forth, and nothing actually happens
beside the fact that anyone with the brain goes that
is fucking moronic. What are we talking about? And I

(50:49):
just think we've crossed the line where anyone can just
stand up be like, why are we talking about this,
like why is this happening? And it feels like it
happens all the time. Now is something out of nowhere
that no one or at least ninety nine point nine
percent of anyone you or I would meet or know,
would even think twice about. And then it just becomes something.

(51:12):
And then it not only becomes something, it just grows
and grows and grows. It's like you had fertilizer to it,
you add some gasoline to it, you like the match,
and all of a sudden, it's like, this is the
biggest story now in America? How is this possible? And
I listen, this is I guess. So my fugazi is like,
I just don't know what happened to Like normal controversies,

(51:33):
they were just like we all could agree on, like
that's pretty crazy. That's pretty nuts, right, Like O. J.
Simpson getting off like did he killer? Like that was
like everyone had an open that was a legit story.
The Sydney sweeneyad is not a legit story yet in
a weird way, because of the process and the creation
of social media, it's become one. Like do you think

(51:53):
you could meet any human being if this story had
never happened right, and the ad just existed. Who Ever
would have mentioned it? Besides, like Ash, she's fucking hot, man,
she looks good in those genes. No, I don't believe so.
I believe that to my core, to my soul. But
that's not the world we live in anymore. The volume